Wednesday, 26 September 2012

With the The Little Robot project, we've begun to research and explore early concepts between the three poster style images.

The first image is designed to 'set the scene' so to speak, introducing the predominant environment and main characters. The use of bold colours and saturated tones is just one of the styles we may intend to pursue.

The soldier and robot find themselves having to journey through a treacherous swamp in the story, which we feel is a great opportunity to show the darker side of The Little Robot. Here are some initial concepts of the swamp environment in the works.

Wednesday, 12 September 2012

With our last post, we announce the beginning of a new project, this new project is a screenplay adaptation of the Book The Little Robot by Amy Mccartney.

While we are starting to think of scriptwriting and how effectively adapt the story. Firstly we are presenting 3 posters for our pitch presentation, these 3 posters will demonstrate the characters and the environments modeled, the art direction we will choose, as well as any colour schemes, athmosphere and scale comparison.

So stay tuned on that end!!

Therefore, in the beginning of each project, one of the first steps is to research the style you want to employ to your animation. On our meeting we decided to have a variety of ideas on art direction, where each member would come with their own ideas. In this case this is my opinion ( Ruben) on the art direction and style we could take on this project. Here my influence map.

Sunday, 9 September 2012

With Final Chapter arriving to a closure, a few expected and unexpected things happen to Atom Pancakes as a studio.

To give you all the latest gossip at first hand, I will present a list with the headlines and then explain in detail, all the brand new things happening to the studio as well as the future projects.

Headlines:

Expansion of the studio from 3 members to 5.

Atom Pancakes Purpose

Features in Magazines, etc.

Going Professional- one step further!

New Features.

Next Project.

Expansion of the studio from 3 members to 5.

The first and most important headline is that Atom Pancakes is getting bigger, after talks with the original members Jordan Buckner, Ethan Shilling and I. we all decided that would be best for all if we could bring more people in with different set of skills. Therefore, we invited and welcomed fellow CG Artists Leo Tsang and Sam Hayes, to our studio. This addition will only benefit not only the studio but each individual as with a better and skilled team the work produce will be of a higher standard.

Atom Pancakes Purpose

Our objective slightly changed from when we formed the studio, while at the beginning Atom pancakes served as a fictional studio created as part of our course minor project, nowadays the studio will work as a small community of 5 fellow artists who seek to find jobs in the industry by perfecting their skills, with the help of one another. Therefore Atom Pancakes is officially classified as a studio.

Features in Magazines and Events

Lately, Atom Pancakes attempted to publish the studio, by entering to events and festivals. Final Chapter was featured in New Designers 2012, and showcased throughout all the event where hundreds of people, appreciated the work put in it. However, not all is good news, Final Chapter was also submitted to Canterbury Anifest, however it wasn't shortlisted and won't be screened on the festival.
Individually, members of the studio were approached by magazines, and tried to once again give some extra exposure to the studio.
For example, I ( Ruben Martins) was featured at Digital Arts magazine September Issue, where The Final Chapter was indeed a big sensation. Meanwhile other online magazine, Ceiga was interested to feature the Final Chapter on their blog.

Going Professional- one step further!

After a few meetings, at Atom pancakes we decided it was time to go one step further, and instead of having a fictional studio, we should seek to give professional service to possible employers. For this purpose, a few things undergone, first we are slightly changing the logo to upgrade our level of professionalism, we are creating business cards, with the individual names in order to present ourselves as a studio. We are researching into funding, and other possible ways to get the studio going. And last but not least, we are looking for people who seek our services.

Thus exciting yet stressful times approach but all is part of the experience. Wish us luck!!

New Features

To add extra professionalism to our studio we revamped this blog, with a new and cleaner layout design, in this blog we pretend to share some of the work produce for our projects, as well as have creative discussions where everybody is welcome to offer their feedback. Alongside the blog, our website also suffered a major update, in there you can find all the information about the studio as well as the last project we worked on, any future projects and the latest news about the studio.

While at New Designers, we made contact with a few fellow illustrators and graphic designers. Therefore our next project is the product of a few talks with illustrator Amy Mccartney, to whom we proposed to adapt her children's book Little Robot, to a short animation. With the permission and enthusiasm of the illustrator, we are all set to begin the new project. Firstly, in 10 weeks time we will present a pitch presentation with 3 scenes of the story, expressing our art direction and style. Then with the agreement of the illustrator/storyteller Amy we will proceed to the animation.

So fasten your seat belts, while Atom Pancakes will take you behind the scenes of creating an animated short.

Saturday, 8 September 2012

Well it's finally here! The post that closes one project, to make way for something new.

Since The Final Chapters first release, it has undergone quite a few changes.
It has endured many cuts, but also welcomed some brand new scenes, and all to prepare itself for New Designers 2012, which has been and gone... it went rather well!

The Final Chapter isn't the only thing undergoing some tweaks. Very soon Atom Pancakes should be releasing an updated logo and brand new ident, also hopefully giving both the studio website banner and the blogs banner their own similar, but distinctive look... and we might actually get some business cards designed and printed! No idea how we overlooked that!
So after the success of New Designers 2012, this officially marks the end of The Final Chapter.

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

So after one last pass of tweaking, this is the definitive version of The Final Chapter. Well, at least I hope it is anyway! :D

There were a couple of things that I had to resolve slightly differently though, but first, watch the film.

So apart from tweaking the sound effects and music, there are a couple of other notable tweaks.

The first being the POV shot. I tried cutting without the swipe, with and without the award, but it just wasn't going to be as good as getting the original shot to work as it should.
So I re-did the cam movement one last time. However this time, I did what I should have done in the first place, and that is to place the cam on his face. Render the entire corner of the room that he can see, then zooming and rotating with a 3D cam in AE, effectively fixing both the eyeline and the perspective of the shot. (and saving on render time)
Part of the problem before was that the camera was physically closer to the wall than where his face was, so the 3D looked more extreme and the cam also required moving as well as rotating.

The second thing was the removal of the night to day close up shot. The music could not be cut any shorter so I was left with a gap to fill. Naturally, the only thing that could replace it was an alternate night to day, but this time, showing the golden dagger award.

About

Atom Pancakes is an independent Production Company specialised in 3D Animation. The Studio was formed as part of a project for university. We provide services in the production pipeline, from concept design to final animation.